LibriVox recording of 'You Know Me Al', by Ring Lardner. Read by Rick Rodstrom.

Big, fat, dumb, lazy, vain, headstrong and cheap, Jack Keefe is a journeyman pitcher with the Chicago White Sox in the rowdy days of the Deadball Era, circa 1915, ruled by the likes of Ty Cobb and John McGraw. In You Know Me Al, we follow Jack Keefe's life on-field and off, via the letters Jack writes to his old chum Al in his home town of Bedford, Indiana.

Ring Lardner was a Chicago sportswriter who covered the White Sox, and he brought an insider's knowledge of clubhouse life together with his biting wit and gift for the vernacular to create a comic gem in You Know Me Al. The six Jack Keefe stories that compose this volume were originally written as individual magazine articles, but the epistolary format made it easy to collect them into a single running narrative covering Jack's first two years in the Big Leagues.

It isn't necessary to know baseball history to enjoy the book, which is as much about Jack's troubles with girlfriends, wives and babies as it is about the Chicago White Sox. For the baseball fan, however, this glimpse into a bygone era adds an extra layer of fascination. In any case, Lardner's portrait of the professional ballplayer as a dumb, drunken narcissist is as funny today as the day it was written. (Summary by Rick Rodstrom)

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M4B format available

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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Ring Lardner
Date: 2009-08-30
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: Librivox; audiobook; baseball; epistolary fiction; Chicago White Sox; Deadball Era

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: lanternland - - January 22, 2012
Subject: Ten stars!
Love the book - and it is absolutely perfectly read by Rick Rodstrom!

Reviewer: werewolf9 - - February 15, 2011
Subject: Great
Great story, and one of the best Libravox readings ever!

Reviewer: wagstaff - - September 1, 2009
Subject: You know us Ring.
A great baseball story. A funny tale made all the more laughable by a wonderful reader.